Web-only letters to the editor, Oct. 30, 2012

Tuesday

Dispatch.com regularly will post letters to the editor that don't make it to print in The Dispatch. Unlike letters to the editor that appear in the newspaper, Web-only letters have not been edited.

Dispatch.com regularly will post letters to the editor that don't make it to print in The Dispatch. Unlike letters to the editor that appear in the newspaper, Web-only letters have not been edited.

Democrats' rhetoric

Years ago, because I was raised by a staunch democrat, I had leanings towards that party. My extended family was comprised of uncles and aunts who, like my mom and grandparents viewed themselves as victims of the rich.

They spoke constantly about never getting a fair chance or even break and the system being stacked against them. I bought into it as a teen for a while but these some people ended up pushing me to recognize that their values and sense of victimization were not my own. They made excuses instead of headway and usually it was due to their own poor decisions that the "breaks" went against them.

I found that conservatives and republicans were much more the party of achievers, of independent thinkers and doers, of people who would not let obstacles block their paths.

Today's democrat party is even less the party of old than the one that existed when I was a kid. It has become something most JFK and Roosevelt democrats would not recognize.

Those men were not pro-abortion. Quite the contrary. They rejected it.

They were not anti-wealthy, they were themselves unapologetically wealthy men. JFK even lowered tax rates on the wealthy, as did Reagan, so it would free them up to invest and expand and hire and reward. It worked great. It is what Romney wants to do and is one of the reasons the Columbus Dispatch endorsed him.

They would have scoffed at the idea of marriage being anything other than a union between a man and woman. They would have called the fact that 47 million people are on food stamps and that people could go years on "unemployment" an abomination. It is.

The fact that the democrats took God's name out of their platform this year and had to backtrack to put it back in after it had become known publically tells you where God now stands relative to the democrats and their official posture. They are no longer satisfied with a separation of church and state…they want a separation of church and our culture ... our society.

Most of the good and especially older democrats out there really should take a look at the platforms of the two parties. They will have to admit, if they are honest with themselves, that they are no longer democrats in what they believe but are in fact republicans who are voting democrat out of habit.

Time to change a bad habit friends. I did, years ago. You can too. ... maybe just in time to save our "Republic".

Dave Gustin, Leesburg

Dangerous street

I read with anger the article concerning the City settling a lawsuit for a person injured on a pot hole-riddled street. The plaintiff's attorney said the street in question was in disrepair and had been that way for years. SO,WHY DID THE RIDER ELECT TO USE THAT DANGEROUS STREET?

Bill Ofsanik, Columbus

No new taxes?

Just another example of the "No New Taxes" policies making thingd hard on us taxpayers.

Would the public prefer the cheaper but twice as long inconvenience of, gulp!, "No New Taxes", or spending much more tax money to cut the repair and detour time in half?

Grover Norquist wants your Congresspersons to solemnly swear (under threat of no conservative campaign funding if they refuse) to cut the Fed's income and force you to endure the longer construction time periods.

Are you really happy with your representative's promise to Grover; a promise you also signed by voting for the "No New Taxes" crowd!

The choice of who the next President of the United States should be is very clear regardless of ads, commercials and campaign rallies. President Obama's four year record should speak very clear and very loud to the American people. Likewise, Governor Romney's record as a Governor, a businessman, his involvement with the Olympics and his years as a Pastor should speak very clear and very loud to the American people. The past records of these two candidates are the true measurement of their credibility or lack thereof. For those voters that are still undecided, look to the actual past records of these two candidates and the choice for President of the United States of America will be very clear. ... When comparing the actual records you will see it is crystal clear that Governor Mitt Romney is what America desperately needs.

Kimberly May, Galloway

Regulating regulation

On Wednesday October 24, the Dispatch reported that Richard Cordray and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau ("CFPB") are touring the country and exploring proposals to further regulate debt collectors. In Seattle on Wednesday, Cordray and the CFPB discussed the agency's authority to supervise companies, i.e., physically examine their operations and practices. However, Cordray's deputy Raj Date assured those in Seattle that the agency seeks above all to take a "data-driven" approach to regulation.

Given the agency's dedication to data, I hope that Cordray and the CFPB will seriously and carefully balance the cost of supervision with the expected benefit to consumers. If Cordray's approach does not include sound cost-benefit analysis, CFPB's supervision may unintentionally harm the good actors who follow the law while providing only minimal consumer benefit to boot.

Bad apple debt collectors do exist, but damaging the good apples through unthoughtful regulation is not the best response to the problem. I hope that Cordray and the CFPB regulate, or choose not to regulate, based on data instead of emotional appeals.

Joshua L. Farnsworth, Jeffersonville

Fair and balanced?

Your front page of today's Dispatch, Wednesday, October 24, 2012, is about as subtle as Barack Obama himself. You claim to be fair and balanced, but your page filled with pro-Obama headlines and stories was actually humorous. You have outed yourselves blatantly and without shame. I even heard people talking about it in a restaurant at lunch today. You can be a liberal, Democrat paper or you can be fair and balanced, but not both. Today you were totally obvious in trying to help President Obama drum up votes. It's a pity because I actually remember when the Dispatch was fair and balanced.

E.G. Schwartz, Columbus

Defense spending

Defense Spending Defense Department expenditures, which have doubled in the past decade, account for approximately half of all federal expenditures and that is a lot of money each year! Since Congress has mandated a $487-billion cut in Defense spending over the next decade, it is understandable why "Anxiety is high over defense spending" (Dispatch Oct 19). Congress did the right thing to rein in the national debt.

An example comes from Newsweek (Oct 1&8, 2012): "The National Cancer Institute is the nation's preeminent institution tasked with leading cancer scientists toward new means to prevent, treat, and cure cancers. Its annual budget of about $5 billion is stagnating and threatened." By comparison, the amount spent by the U.S military on the conflict in the Middle East in 2008 was about $12 billion every month." That is about $144 billion annually! What's wrong with this picture? Some budget cuts will be in military materials and some in military jobs. But, it is high time some serious budget trimming happens in that area since the Defense Department has been bleeding the life out of our society.

Fred Suter, Westerville

Obama on defense

President Obama may have sounded quite cute to the uninformed students in the audience and the fawning members of the liberal press who were reported by FOX news anchor Megyn Kelly to have applauded Obama's sarcastic reply to Mitt Romney's concerns about the strength of our Navy, but in reality he showed a stunning ignorance of the history of the military weaponry he so blithly mentioned. Aircraft carriers for instance have been around since the early 1900s, just about the time that Romney noted that Obama's reductions would take our navy back to. The first operational aircraft carrier was the British HMS Argus in 1918. Submarines date back even farther to the late 1800s when the first true submarines that could be considered truly operational were built. Early submarines date back to as early as 1620 and the United States tried to sink British warships during the American Revolution with a submersible craft. Early submarines were develped during the American Civil War with the most famous being the Confederate submarine CSS Hunley. Even nuclear submarines are now decades old having been deployed in the 1950s. While our nuclear powered carriers and subs are truly modern and high tech, the actual weapons systems have been around for a long time.

As far as the outdated weapons Obama derided, the bayonet is still issued to troops and although a truly "last ditch" weapon, it is still part of the modern soldiers armament. Our special forces made good use of horses loaned to them by friendly Northern Alliance Afghans during the early fighting in the Afghan War. To this analyst the horse might still be a preferable vehicle to road bound armor ins some types of difficult terrain. Roadbound vehicles, are particularly vulnerable to ambush and improvised explosive devices as we have discovered to our regret in Iraq and Afghanistan.

One last point about aircraft carriers. Why was there not an aircraft carrier in the Mediterranean on the night of September 11 or for that matter any time during the Arab Spring? A carrier or an amphibious assault ship with attack helicopters would have been valuable for possible evacuation of Americans from the turmoil of the area or perhaps our militarily challenged President and his minions did not think of that either.

Darl Stephenson, Pleasantville

'Dispatch' endorsement

It came as no surprise to long time or recent readers that the Dispatch endorsed Romney last Sunday (10/21/2012) The surprise was the thin Dispatch argument and the timing came before the 3rd debate. The Dispatch editorial offers the usual litany of negative economic statistics emanating from the near depression with none of the context (blanket Republican obstruction; world wide economy complexity and instability, the absolute necessity to spend to replace lost demand, etc) or the positives (economy improving on jobs and housing, the car industry coming back, etc).

To paraphrase President Clinton, "its not just the economy, Stupid" as the Dispatch would suggest. In the end, the President ran in 2008 to avert a world wide depression through bipartisan cooperation. From start to end, the President did a phenomenal job not just averting a depression with moderate policies putting the US economy on a sound footing to grow by at least 12 million jobs in the next 4 years ( Moody'.com) regardless of the incredible instability in the world economy. And, he did this in the face of a disloyal "loyal opposition", the Republican Party, that swore to oppose everything the President worked on, and indeed they did oppose everything. Unconscionable and outrageous! Amazing that he did so well for us. Think about the robust economy we could have had now if the Republicans had worked with him.

What Dispatch endorsement avoided entirely were the central issues of any presidential campaign: character/values, the question of qualifications and vital policy issues of the day; economy related or not.

On character, Romney is disqualified for 5 reasons. First, because he has unashamedly changed every important policy position he has ever been forced to announce even changing his vital policy on withdrawal from Afghanistan during the 3rd debate just Monday night. Second, he has refused to rebuke his party for the "birther" and other racist accusations – now incredibly only 2 in 5 Ohio Republicans believe our President was born in America. Third, he has refused to rebuke his party for seeking in some 30 states to suppress access to the ballot for our least resourced citizens. Fourth, he has refused to rebuke his party for the continuing pattern of disrespect for our President, even Monday night he himself telling our President "you'll have your turn". And, fifth he has lied, yes lied, about the President even continuing to repeat the lies after the lies were exposed on the welfare work requirement and on the Medicare funding issue and Obamacare.

On qualifications like unique knowledge or skill, Romney's main claim is that as a successful businessman he knows better than our President how to create jobs and balance the budget. He did accumulate incredible wealth as an equity investor who "harvested businesses". There is no evidence from his time at Bain Capital or as Governor of Massachusetts that he has any unique knowledge or skill for job creating. And, no one will follow a leader who lacks integrity.

On policy, incredibly, there are only 3 things we know for sure about Romney policy – he would keep tax cuts and further cut taxes for the wealthiest Americans AND he would strip regulations on private enterprise AND he would choose 2 Supreme Court Justices who will vote to support and rig the rules for the top one percent, give power to corporations and abolish any abortion rights. Elections do have consequences and we know these three. Otherwise, he has taken most sides of every important policy – moderate for Massachusetts, severely conservative for the Republican primaries and moderating again during recent debates. If you badly want an alternative to our President, you can find solace by projecting any policy you prefer on the blank slate that is Romney. Just remember that he is beholding to a large group of elected right wing extremists and media personalities who will largely dictate his policy agenda and decisions.

In sum, the Dispatch rushed to premature judgment relying exclusively on the questionable assumption that Romney can do some magic that would improve on the 12 million jobs now expected from the President's economy (Romney actually only promises the same 12 million new jobs). You completely ignore the critical issues of character and policies which should scare and worry Americans. A Romney Presidency would be a disaster for America and especially ordinary Americans. We are indeed blessed to have a fine President who deserves respect, thanks and reelection.

Randal C. Morrison, Columbus

Big number

What is a trillion dollars?

I am an amateur astronomer and a trillion is still a huge number to me that is hard to comprehend. To help put it in perspective, lets convert it into seconds.

1 Trillion seconds equals 31,688+ years!

16 Trillion Seconds equals 507,020+ years!

Converting our national debt into seconds and you can see it is well over 1/2 million years. (About when we, homo sapiens, first evolved)

Remember this when you vote and vote for the person that you feel comfortable with handling our national debt. It should be a top priorty!

We have all heard rhetoric about returning the tax rate to the Clinton era. Something to consider if the spending rate was also returned to the Clinton era.

Stuart Little, Columbus

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